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The “bad wolves” prowl around the art market

2022-12-06T11:10:40.330Z


The young creators reach millionaire prices at auction, but the big speculators monopolize the greatest benefits


A Dánae rain of 65,000 million euros falls on the art market.

But the young hardly benefit.

The speculators (

flippers

, in the jargon) have found a new trophy: the

ultra

-contemporary .

Works created by artists born after 1974, a different market than Old, Modern or Post-War masters.

Pinball players go

after high -

demand artists—particularly female painters—whose prices explode like a supernova.

Flora Yukhnovich, 32, is a market prodigy.

In June his canvas

De ella Boucher's Flesh

appeared in the Sotheby's room with an estimate of 200,000 pounds.

It was awarded in 2,334,000.

About 2.7 million euros.

Twelve more times.

The huge profit climbed only to the pocket of the

owner

and the auction house.

Dealers defend their young female creators against what Larry Gagosian—the world's most powerful gallerist—calls “the big bad wolves”.

His gallery has signed Anna Weyant (27 years old).

The youngest artist in a spectacular catalogue.

Her former manager, 56 Henry, sold the

Summertime

oil painting for $12,000 during 2020. In May someone paid $1.5 million at Christie's for that “summer time.”

Gagosian's response to scare away the

beasts

was to raise the average price of Weyant above 500,000 euros.

One of the problems is that the art market is still trapped by ancestral codes.

“This is a handshake business.

And if you resell, you never enter the door again ”, warns the director of one of the four most important galleries on the planet, who asks to remain anonymous.

Last summer he received a photograph from a collector that he speculated with several pieces.

The caption?

"Access to our spaces is prohibited."

"We are very scrupulous with the younger artists to avoid speculation," says Violant Porcel, director in Spain of the German gallery Esther Schipper.

Galleries only sell the most sought after and valuable works to a narrow circle of collectors and museums.

And they force them to sign non-resale contracts or to acquire other works by their artists before opting for the

new stars

.

This is how they block opportunists.

Within this space painted by layers of surprises, one of the biggest is the darkness when prices fall.

“Galleries try to avoid volatility, as the drop in value could undermine the development of the artist's career.

If it goes down, it shows potential buyers that there is a problem," warns Olav Velthuis, a professor at the University of Amsterdam.

The trajectory of a young creator feels the fragility of cracked earthenware.

Proposals appear to shield themselves, admit speculation and collaborate with the business.

The European Union established in 2006 a resale canon (

droit de suite

) that benefits the artist.

But it is only 4% and has a limit of 12,500 euros.

It's almost a tax, says Amy Whitaker, an art professor at New York University, rather than an equity stake.

Others inhabit distant ecosystems.

“The latest catalogs from the big auctions are insufferable.

This is positive for galleries outside of the speculative”, defends the Portuguese dealer Pedro Cera.

Still, in the dens of money, lurk the "big bad wolves."

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Source: elparis

All news articles on 2022-12-06

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